A variety of research projects are involved in design and development of systems for rapid and reliable detection of chemical and biological warfare agents in the field. One such effort, initiated by the U.S. Army in support of the Department of Defense (DoD) Joint Service Wide Area Detection (JSWAD) program, is PANSPEC (short for panoramic-imaging spectroradiometer). Various aspects of PANSPEC systems and designs are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,503 issued to Carrieri, on Jan. 13, 1998 (“'503 patent”), U.S. Pat. No. 6,060,710 issued to Carrieri, on May 19, 2000 (“'710 patent”) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,389,408 issued to Carrieri, et al., on May 14, 2002 (“'408 patent”). The '503, '710, and '408 patents are incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth.
Spectral measurements of chemical clouds in the open environment require a sensor of adequate photosensitivity, spectral resolution, numerical aperture and throughput to produce a sufficiently large signal-to-noise ratio for performing useful radiometric detections of such targets. Moreover, for such a device to be of practical value, it must withstand and compensate for extremes in weather, and be sufficiently robust to operate reliably in the field under a variety of adverse conditions.